A healthy fitness lifestyle is about how we live, not how we look! A functional fitness lifestyle will equip you to strengthen your body for everyday activities. Consequently, bad posture, aging, desk jobs, or lifting heavy objects will result in our bodies not functioning the way they should. No matter how fit or strong we become, our bodies will still have the potential for problems. Therefore, take charge of your own well-being through functional fitness. Functional fitness focuses on multi-joint movements that improve the way you perform daily activities.
Why functional fitness for daily activities?
Functional fitness training focuses mainly on strengthing your core and creating a stable foundation. Movements involve multiple planes rather than focusing on one motion and isolating the joints. Functional fitness exercises are for everyone. That being said, here are three reasons why functional fitness should be a part of your daily routine:
1. Balance and stability
In life, there are many things that can throw off stability, such as walking on ice or going up the stairs. Functional fitness can enhance balance and stability with certain exercises. Boosting your balance and stability will improve posture, coordination, and functional strength. Balance and stability will help prevent falls or help you recover better if you do fall.
2. Reduce the risk of injury
Practicing functional fitness will greatly decrease the risk of injury while performing daily activities. Picking up a potted plant, a brick, a heavy box, or furniture and throwing out your back is not something we hope for. Functional fitness training can reduce that risk by strengthening the muscles you use daily.
3. Increased strength
Functional fitness increases your strength. It can increase your core strength by creating a more stable foundation. For example, shoveling dirt or snow requires strength from more than just one muscle group. That being said, utilizing free weights in the gym allows you to have free motion. So, when building strength through functional fitness, it is best to have a full range of motion to apply multi-joint movements.
In short, to improve your everyday life, functional fitness will allow you to move better and feel better. If you are a beginner, start simple. Use your own body weight, and then slowly move up to heavier weights. Exercise classes can also count as functional fitness training! Yoga and Tai-Chi classes are great examples of classes that have multi-joint movement exercises. No matter what you try, functional fitness will be beneficial to your lifestyle.
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